Hold onto your wigs, the Queen is back. Four days after announcing the release date of her seventh solo studio album, the eagerly anticipated act i: RENAISSANCE (out July 29), Beyoncé dropped the project’s lead single, “BREAK MY SOUL.” A co-production between Beyoncé, Tricky Stewart and The-Dream (who last collaborated on 2009’s “Single Ladies”), “BREAK MY SOUL” honors a long lineage of liberatory queer anthems, like Diana Ross’ “I’m Coming Out” or Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love.”
Beyoncé's New Single is Out. Listen to 'BREAK MY SOUL'
Queen Bey in March 2022. (Mason Poole/A.M.P.A.S. via Getty Images)
Whether it’s a dead-end job or a relationship that’s not going anywhere, Beyoncé wants you to release the stress. Over a pulsing dance melody, she croons, “Got motivation, I done found me a new foundation, and I’m takin’ my new salvation and I’ma build my own foundation,” before delivering an uplifting mantra of “You won’t break my soul” in the chorus. Built around a four-count sample of the gay club staple “Show Me Love” by Robin S. and an interpolation of NOLA rapper Big Freedia’s 2014 bounce record “Explode,” the retrofuturistic track is a seamless blend of disco, house and gospel pop with dulcet, meticulously-arranged vocals ready for the ballroom.
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